MILOS MAKES HISTORY
Raonic becomes first Canadian to reach men’s singles final at a Grand Slam event.
WIMBLEDON, ENGLAND— Roger Federer lying prone on the grass. Milos Raonic standing over him. From a few yards away, but still.
Federer on the ground, if not quite out. Raonic on his feet, on his long legs, a little bit concerned but with nostrils flaring. Sniffing the scent of the kill.
And, ultimately, at the end of five sets that ran the gamut from desultory to thrilling, tall astride the seven-time Wimbledon champion.
His first Grand Slam final secured. The first Grand Slam final for a Canadian man in the Open era. Eugenie Bouchard, of course, got there first for women.
Few punters around here gave favoured odds on Friday’s upset outcome.
Oh, it would be close, the more generous-minded predicted. But come on. This was Federer, living legend, 10-0 in Wimbledon semis.
And this was Raonic, a game but decidedly mortal opponent, with a 2-9 record against the Swiss myth who’d demolished him here, straight sets, in their semi two years ago, lesson administered on the hallowed green grass of SW19.
Where Raonic will appear again, come Sunday’s final, against British No. 1 Andy Murray, who clobbered big-serving Czech Tomas Berdych in straight sets in Friday’s other semifinal 6-3, 6-3, 6-3.
The 25-year-old who grew up a tennis phenom in a middle-class immigrant Thornhill, Ont., family where nobody played tennis, punched his ticket to Centre Court redux, on the last day of this prestigious tournament, by ushering off Wimbledon’s most beloved hero, 6-3, 6-7 (3), 4-6, 7-5, 6-3.
“Obviously, what happened here two years ago, I was very disappointed with,” Raonic acknowledged afterwards. “Today, I sort of persevered. I was sort of plugging away.”
“I was struggling through many parts of the match. He gave me a little opening towards the end of the fourth. I made the most of it. Then I sort of tried to run away with it.’’
Plugging away is too passive a description. Raonic served and volleyed and ran Federer off the court, out of the 130th Championships after going one set up, then one set down, then level. Then a muscular, dramatic break for Raonic in Game 12 of the fourth, which Federer appeared to have completely in hand at 40-love.
By the fifth set, which perhaps only Raonic had believed in the offing, Federer was scrambling to hang in, to avoid the double break, clinging to the match by his finely-manicured fingernails, the crowd — perhaps to their own surprise — suddenly torn, adoration of yore engulfing Federer, a new crush ignited by Raonic. The highly decorated veteran serving to stay in the match, in the tournament, down 5-2 in the fifth, twice attended by a trainer, doubtless exhausted, muscles trembling from the rigors of two five-set encounters within 48 hours, a knee twisted wincingly in a stumble.
Raonic, cold-blooded, retreating to his chair, the prospect of Federer retiring not even entering his mind.
Federer crept back at 5-3. But then it was the Canadian’s chance to serve for the match. He did it with panache, with un-returnable serves, with an exclamation mark: Holding at love, Federer sending a running backhand astray on triple match point.
A fist-pump from Raonic and a mighty roar. In fact, moving his glance away from Federer and almost instantly forgetting him as the superstar who owns 17 Grand Slam titles sloped away in defeat.
“I was very self-centered at that point,” Raonic stated forthrightly. “I wasn’t really thinking about Roger. I was very focused on myself, proud of the way I was able to pull through that match.’’
A subdued Federer observed at his hop-to-it press conference: “He’s done a lot of changing of his game in the last four years. When I played him on the grass, it was pretty much always the same. It was just bang, bang, first serves, from my side, from his side. Obviously makes more returns now. That was always going to improve. That was not going to get worse.’’
Just a matter of time, Federer added, before Raonic — sixth seed — cracked through the upper echelon of men’s tennis, though he bristled when asked for the third time to address what had worked so well for Raonic. “He fought hard today. He’s got a fighting chance on Sunday.’’
That’s damning his vanquisher with faint praise, Federer unusually churlish. But of course his dismay was profound and his worry over the wrenched knee — in a year beset by injury, including the same knee surgically repaired — heavy. It was an ugly skew of the joint but Federer tumbled because he got his feet all tangled up while trying to move laterally on yet another return beyond reach.
After that medical time out, a trainer palpitating Federer’s thigh, Raonic decisively reared up, rampant. There would be no spectacular comeback for Federer, as there had been in his breathtaking quarterfinal against Marin Cilic.
The real turning point was in the fourth set, which looked a brisk service game for Federer, up 40-love on a backhand winner. After Raonic stroked a forehand winner, Federer shockingly clanked back-to-back double faults. Five for Federer in the match, after just two for the entire tournament; 11 for Raonic.
Back and forth to deuce until Raonic crushed a backhand winner down the line to force the decider.
“Just a little opening,” Raonic said. “I managed to turn it around.’’
With a 3-1 break in the fifth, the match slid away from Fed-Ex for good. For Federer, 306 Slam matches won, most prolific in history. For Raonic, 56.
But as the Canadian put it later, sizing up the mythology of Federer: “You’re playing who Roger is today, not who he’s been the past few years.’’
He did spare a congratulatory word, however, for Denis Shapovalov, the 17-year-old from Richmond Hill who beat top-seed Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece 4-6, 7-6 (5), 6-2, to advance to the boys’ final where he’ll face Aussie Alex De Minaur.
“There’s a lot of hope, a lot of positive future in Canadian tennis. It’s great to sort of be at the centre and front of that come Sunday. I’m glad that I’ve sort of been leading this charge, the first one to break through.
“But I’m by no means done.”